Bundesliga Wrap: Bayern benefit as rivals falter

Bayern Munich took a significant step closer to the Bundesliga title on Saturday, without even playing a domestic fixture.

Published

21 December 2013

Pep Guardiola's men - contesting the FIFA Club World Cup final in Morocco - will have been boosted by news from home that both Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen suffered league defeats against Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen respectively.

The results leave Bayern seven points clear at the summit with a game in hand over their closest rivals.

In Dortmund, Marco Reus got the game off to the best possible start for Jurgen Klopp's side as he slotted home in the seventh minute, but Adrian Ramos pulled the visitors level from close range midway through the first period.

A Marian Sarr error on the stroke of half-time allowed Sami Allagui to turn the match on its head and leave Dortmund trailing 2-1 at the interval.

Neither side was able to find the back of the net after the break as the hosts succumbed to their third successive home defeat in the league for the first time since March 2000.

With just one win from five Bundesliga outings, Dortmund will be feeling the pressure, but, on a bad day for the division's leading clubs, Leverkusen were unable to take advantage of that slip-up as they fell to a second successive reverse.

Sami Hyypia's charges looked second best throughout in a 1-0 defeat to Bremen as Santiago Garcia's 75th-minute strike proved to be the difference between the sides.

In an eventful clash at the Imtech Arena, 10-man Hamburg fell to a third straight leage defeat after conceding a stoppage-time goal to lose 3-2 against Mainz.

The hosts went ahead in the 21st minute through Hakan Calhanoglou before Shinji Okazaki and Nicolai Muller gave Mainz the lead within five minutes of the start of the second half.

Rafael van der Vaart appeared to have at least rescued a point 11 minutes from time, but Tomas Rincon's dismissal for a second bookable offence three minutes later was followed by a Mainz injury-time winner from Okazaki.

Elsewhere, 10-man Eintracht Braunschweig momentarily pulled themselves off the bottom of the league with a 1-0 victory over Hoffenheim, but now sit at the foot of the table on goal difference following Nuremberg's goalless draw with Schalke, who missed the opportunity to climb to fifth.

Freiburg also picked up a vital three points as Admir Mehmedi's first-half double inspired them to a 2-1 win against Hannover.